


Progression of Love

by LittleNimbus



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:59:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2753672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleNimbus/pseuds/LittleNimbus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five short stages of Levi's interaction with Eren, as the former grows slight affection for the younger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Progression of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Annndd... so, I decided to write this after seeing a tumblr post comparing Isabel's and Eren's similarities with Levi's shocked face.  
> It's a little short, but I hope you would enjoy nevertheless. I tried to make this as accurate to the manga's timeline as much as possible, scrolling through Wikipedia and stuff after the manga just loads too long for me to re-read everything, so yeah, hopefully it had reached the goal.  
> And My God, since I hadn't watched the anime before but read the manga first I had thought Levi was pronounced as 'Le-vy' when it turned out to be 'Li-vai'. (My mom knows how to pronounce the word correctly because of the jeans brand name and then told me.)  
> To my friends who had heard me say this name wrongly and not laugh,  
> I salute you.
> 
> (only owns the written form of the story)

_I. The First Step_

Watching the Jaeger brat down on his knees, eyes blazing with anger, during his trial, had lit some sort of déjà vu sense in Levi, as he was reminded of his past when he had been approached by Erwin to join the Recon Corp in the Underground District.

The look in the boy’s eyes had been rather alike his late friends Farlan and Isabel, the look of pride and will not to listen to those shitty scums who just wanted to control others but were also cowards to fear the uncertain just because they were afraid to risk their own lives.

Thinking back now, that was probably what triggered his decision to step out, and yes, give Jaeger what Hange, that miserable titan fanatic, had called ‘one hell of painful beat up’. “Mean bastard”, she had muttered while cleaning the brat’s wounds, and he had rolled his eyes internally, with a passing thought of _Shitty Glasses._

Even after she had stepped aside and Erwin had given his ‘I look forward to working with you, Eren’ speech, Corporal Levi had to admit; the way the kid stuttered, “L-Likewise, Sir!” had been slightly pathetic compared to his display of rebellion in the courtroom.

The older man had then moved across the room from his previous position of leaning against the wall with arms crossed to sit heavily beside the kid on the other end of the sofa, deliberately landing his hand with extra force near the back of the kid’s neck. The little brat had flinched slightly, and it was nice to see that at least the kid still found him intimidating since the courtroom beat up.

“Say, Eren,” he had drawled, and with a “Y-Yes?” from the other, Levi had continued, “Do you hate me?”

The point of the question hadn’t been to find out what the brat felt towards him—truthfully, what most people thought about him was something he couldn’t give two shits—however, it had been more to access if the brat had the insight to read immediate situations. People with no such ability were more susceptible to risking the whole squad’s mission during outside wall expeditions, and those who would bring harm to his men were useless and not needed, boy who could turn into titan and save humanity or not.

“No, I understand it was necessary,” Jaeger had said, which showed great maturity on the kid’s part.

“Glad to hear.” Levi had closed his eyes, and sensed the boy relaxing beside him.

Those afterwards ‘You could’ve at least held back a little!’ and ‘You even broke his tooth,’ from Hange were ignored, though a slight twinge of repulsion had passed through him as he saw her showing the tooth of Jaeger’s she had collected.

The kid had stared at it, slightly fascinated and out-put at the same time.

_II. The Second Thing_

With the Special Operations Squad assuming responsibility of Jaeger now, watching over the kid was currently Levi’s job and a main priority. Babysitting, however, was a different story which Humanity’s Strongest was not inclined to do, and thus, on the first night, Levi had the kid to sleep in the dungeon lest the latter transformed by accident.

The underground space of the old Survey Corps’ Headquarters inside Wall Rose was dark that one needed a candle to light their way around, and on an earlier personal inspection, Levi had noted, with mild disgust, that the corners of the dungeon though dry were grimed.

As mentioned, babysitting wasn’t his job, but a little cleaning up wouldn’t hurt to make the place seem more decent, so Levi had Oluo to clean up the place (which the latter had grumbled but still done so since it was _his_ Corporal speaking) and by nightfall, brought Jaeger down with a lamp for the kid’s bedtime.

Levi had went down for one last check of his men’s clean up job before bringing Jaeger in, though what both his entire squad and Eren had not known was that after nodding at Oluo, apparently satisfied with the clean-up, on second thoughts while no one was watching Levi had decided to add in another pillow on the bed, just so the brat could use it to sleep better for the night.

A sleep deprived kid would not make good training material, after all.

_III. Third Time Practice_

One thing Levi had noticed, in boredom, was that some of his squad members were still a little apprehensive around the Jaeger kid.

The brat himself too was no better around them, acting slightly awkward most of the time, and Levi was sure that if weren’t for the scene of hot-bloodedness he had seen the kid shown when defending that girl Ackerman a few days ago, he would have thought the kid to be a spineless person.

For some reason, it irritated Levi that he kept subconsciously comparing the behavior of the brat presently with the one during his trail; normally he would be nonchalant about such things.

It didn’t help that Jaeger would show his fiery personality, fury eyes and clenched fists towards people like Oluo who tended to be egoistic, but around the Corporal he would seem to retreat into some sort of invisible hermit shell, acting meek and all.

“Get up.”

“Clean this room.”

“What are you, five? Shitty brat.” The last two words slipped out as Levi had scoffed at the kid’s slow ability to pick up a certain technique in fighting, which they mainly now focused on since the 3D Maneuver Gear would be useless to the kid in titan form.

“M-My apologies, Sir!” Jaeger gave a salute, probably his very best one with his back straightened and right fist firm across his chest and the other behind him.

Levi sighed, once again recognizing the tense and anxious barrier between him and Jaeger, in which the kid had dropped his gaze to the ground when it met with Levi’s sharp grey eyes.

“Look here…kid,” Levi closed his eyes briefly, “I didn’t mean to call you a shitty brat, but understand that this is _important_. If you can’t defend yourself against titans out there, you’re dead meat. And rather a shitty brat than dead meat. Right now, you’re probably Humanity’s best hope against those monsters, so do try at least to learn this. After all, attacking is one of the best ways to defend yourself. Again.”

“Y-Yes, Sir! Corporal Levi, sir!” The kid shifted back into the first form of the technique, legs spread out the width of his shoulders, for maximum balance. _Good_ , thought Levi while checking Jaeger’s structure, before adding, “And, Eren?”

“Y-Yes, Corporal?”

“Do fucking stop stuttering.”

“Yes, Corporal!”

_IV. Four Days Later_

The number of Survey Corps members had increased, with a few of the newly graduated 104th trainees joining in several days after Jaeger’s own arrival. Levi scanned at the new recruits’ faces, sipping his tea, during dinner in the evening.

They were a close group, though there were visible inner conflicts among some of them. Probably the most obvious one was the tension breaking out between Jaeger and Kirstein, and it looked like a brawl between the two boys would happen anytime.

Well. He wondered if they would dare to.

Focusing on his meal, tuning out his own squad members’ voices at his table, he settled to neatly cut and chew his food. A hand grabbed his shoulder and he grunted, annoyed, knowing that once again Hange would try to pull him into the entire group’s conversation.

“If it’s not about the brat’s current condition or anything titan-related, I’m not interested,” Levi said as he paused to sip at his tea once more.

“U-Um, Sir,” a voice said and Levi gazed to the back of his right, where Jaeger was standing behind where he and Hange were siting. Now wonder he had thought it was her at first.

“Yes?’ Levi grunted and jerked his chin for the brat to continue. This was new. The kid rarely approached him for anything, unless it was the other way round.

“I was wondering, Corporal Levi, if you know where the cleaning supplies are kept,” Jaeger said awkwardly, and Levi couldn’t resist raising an eyebrow, “Why, you wish to clean the room later?”

“No! I-I mean, only if you ask me too.” Levi tilted his head back a little, balancing his cup of tea in the middle of his palm for a few seconds, before setting it down again.

“They’re in the second room, third floor.” He did not ask the reason behind the kid’s request.

“Oh, thank you, sir.” The brat had said and then left, leaving Levi with several questioning and curious looks from the inhabitants of his own table, to whom he said nothing.

At nine o’clock sharp, he went to escort Jaeger from his friends to the dungeon.

Midnight, Levi was still up doing paperwork.

Three in the morning, the next day, while moving around the building still awake, Levi found out that the entire dining hall had been moped and dusted, and in his mind he had a good guess of the person who had done it.

_IV. Fifth Becoming Routine_

Somehow, for some reason, it seemed that the brat was growing onto him, Levi thought not with horror, but more of a surprise since that was just so unexpected for him to admit that about anybody.

Perhaps it was the fact that the boy was a general good person in a passionate way, or that the kid didn’t seem that bothered about his high standards for cleaning. Or maybe because it was his maturity, or awkwardness that made one feel like protecting him, or the likeliness to his late friends Levi was accustomed to, and the realization that there were just so many things about the kid that could factor into Levi’s fondness of him made Levi feel as if everything about Eren was just so new and familiar.

It was coming to a month’s period spending time with the kid (yes, somewhere along the way Jaeger had become Eren in his head) and on the usual petrol now Levi could see the little evidence peeping out here and there to indicate his growing fondness of the kid.

There was now a lamp left for light in the dungeon beside Eren’s makeshift bed, thicker blankets too, and every now and then Levi would leave a small dessert or snack for the kid after dinner with the excuse of—if anyone had asked—it being a trivial reward due to the kid’s extra titan training others didn’t have to go through.

Hange would wriggle her brows in a knowing way, Oluo freaking out at the ‘special treatment’, and as for the rest of the squad, not really be bothered about it.

More unexpectedly though, it would be the fact that in later periods of time it would be the boy confessing to his superior first after their talk about exterminating all titans and viewing the outside world just so Eren could achieve his dream of visiting the beach and flowing sea, and looking into Eren’s teal-green eyes as Levi leaned in for a kiss and touched the younger’s soft brown hair, he thought, _this was perfect._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I should have this as a two-shot or something, maybe with Eren's point of view on the whole situation the next chapter and stuff. This feels extremely completed and incomplete, for some reason.  
> Anyway, as usual, hope you enjoyed!


End file.
